On Thursday, August 30, 2018 at 12:41:38 PM UTC-7, wrote:
On Wednesday, August 29, 2018 at 5:35:29 AM UTC-5, OK wrote:
Probably a homeless guy with depend on two-wheels is the real cyclist in my view. Not guys with riding $5k bike on the bike lane who just use bike for
exercise or fun and these guys never use bike for main transporter.
And next real cyclist would be Dutch and Denmark cyclist using for a main transporter.

A long time ago I commuted on a bike and rode it as transport since it was my only transport. AND I rode bikes for fun and recreation too. Was I a DOUBLE REAL CYCLIST????

Coming back from lunch, I saw a homeless guy with all his possession strapped to a bike. It had no chain, and the freewheel was flipped to the left side. He was pushing it down the sidewalk with his feet. Is he a real cyclist? A real scooterist?

I've commuted for 50 years (if you count school), raced for half of that and still ride with racers or former racers on the weekend, but I wear Lycra which is a disqualification from real-cycledom -- and I have some pretty nice bikes, which is a double disqualification.

Just the other day, my son and I were commuting to work when we encountered a real cyclist who wanted to prove that he was more real than the two guys in Lycra by sitting up and slowing down once we caught up. It was an obvious FU that lasted for about three seconds until we found a gap in traffic and shot by. Buh-bye real cyclist!

Half of the real cyclists I see don't look like they're having real fun. Cycling is like some sort of burden they bear. Most of them don't know where to point their lights and couldn't fix a broken spoke, but dammit, they're the real deal!

Now, there are the real-real cyclists, such as myself and a few of my close friends. Even my son has not paid the price to be a real-real cyclists, although he may get there soon. He does have a job in the industry, and he is fast, but he's a lousy mechanic and far too fashionable. To be a real-real cyclist, you have to be in the magical pocket between pretentious retro wooly and spray-on lycra and have lots of tools. Old local team jerseys are required along with stories of yore and daring-do. However, if you use the term "winning move" to describe anything you've done in the past, you're immediately disqualified. No watt counting either.

-- Jay Beattie